Open My Eyes
by Dr. Cat
Summary: Tobey receives some news while in detention. This story takes in regard the first few seasons of Wordgirl and not the later episodes. Enjoy.


_**Disclaimer: Wordgirl and all characters belonging to the Wordgirl Franchise are property of PBS, Soup2Nuts and all parties involved in its development. **_

_**Open My Eyes **_

Another day, another detention. At least he only had to write his disciplinary sentence fifty times instead of the usual one hundred, though he rarely ever wrote them anyway considering he had a whole robot army at his beck and call. Even as the teachers were becoming more suspicious now in days, all he had to do was wait for the educator to turn their head for just one moment and he could set his paper on a window ledge, command one of his machines to do it and pretend that he did. But still, only having to jot down fifty was a blessing. Now he could go home sooner and enjoy the new adventure book he had gotten yesterday through the post and the robotic parts catalog he had stashed in a secret compartment under his bed.

"Mr. Dudley? I've completed the task you've given me and respectfully ask if I can leave now?" he requested as the teacher looked up at the sound of his voice.

"Mm, done already Tobey?" Mr. Dudley questioned doubtfully. He knew the child before him tended to be mischievous and had a long history when it came to tricks and schemes, so caution and skepticism always seemed best in dealing with this ten year old boy.

"Yes," Tobey stated, doing his best to put on a good front as he had done in the past. He held up his paper for Mr. Dudley to see. The teacher took it with a small air of offense. He knew Tobey was cheating, no one could write sentences as fast as this boy claimed, but he couldn't prove it. Every time he looked up Tobey would be scribbling away. He tried putting a mark at the top of each page, to see if his student was just bringing in already written sentences somehow; the answer being no. He would blame it on those robots, but every time he went to the window or looked out in the hall he couldn't spot one.

"Well, Tobey all the sentences are here and . . . their written quite well . . . I might add."

A thought came to Mr. Dudley's mind as his eyes really looked over the paper. He could compare this sheet to some of the boy's old paperwork in class, genius. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"I do pride myself on good penmanship," Tobey declared as he began gathering his things.

"Almost too well," Mr. Dudley stated. He could see Tobey's demeanor change out of the corner of his eye; he had him. He kept a straight face, but was he ever smirking on the inside.

"Well, I've had plenty of practice, heh heh," the boy genius quipped, adjusting his glasses, a nervous habit he was unaware of.

"Yes, but it's almost like you were able to type this up, everything perfect and centered," Mr. Dudley said in mock contemplation. Tobey could see where this was going and it wasn't his way. He should have allotted for this kind of connection, maybe programmed the robots to slip in a typo here and there.

"I'm sure that it could sta-nd for some improvement," Tobey stated, dismayed by the squeak that had entered his voice.

"Well then let's just see about that. Let me compare it to some other hand-writing," the teacher smiled knowing full well that Tobey couldn't wriggle out of this one.

"Oh, I don't think that's necessary. I mean its excellent, but I'm sure somebody somewhere, maybe even in this class, has better hand writing or maybe I am the best in this class but it wouldn't be fair to compare it because . . . because you could hurt my self-esteem."

Mr. Dudley paused for a moment quirking an eyebrow as he looked back at Tobey who was tapping his fingers together with an expression of 'I hope that worked'.

"I guess you're right . . ."

"Really? I mean, yes well that's okay. I suppose we can . . ."

"I'll just compare it to some of your old work and see what kind of improvement in penmanship you do have, Tobey. I suggest you sit back down, relax and grab another sheet of paper just in case." The boy plopped back into his seat with an aggravated expression as he watched his teacher pull out a binder from the desk and begin 'comparing evidence'. He really did need to reprogram those bot-brains. "Well Tobey, care to explain why . . ."

A knock came to the door, interrupting Mr. Dudley's authoritarian speech.

"I'll be back with you in a minute," he declared firmly. Tobey just sulked further, now knowing he wasn't getting out as soon as he would have liked. Well as long as he didn't tell his mother about this then it would be alright with . . . why were they whispering? Tobey looked to the door to see Mr. Dudley talking in hushed tones to someone just outside. He couldn't see them on account the teacher blocked his view, but it was as if they didn't want him to hear. This of course made him want to know what they were talking about, but before he could do anything Mr. Dudley turned quickly around catching the young boy's eye. On impulse, Tobey turned to face away; it was on to punishment time.

"Tobey, get your things. You're leaving now."

The boy sat shocked for a moment, why would he let him go . . . unless he was in more trouble.

"You'll need to come with Mrs. Ripley and me to the office."

Tobey turned to face the door where the gym teacher was sure enough standing. At first he thought they might have figured out that the robot he had with him was hiding on the school's roof, but the look in his teachers' eyes were foreign to him. It wasn't a stern or firm glare, but an anxious, concerned gaze. He had seen it before, just not usually directed towards him. They had pity written all over their faces and that's when a horrible feeling started to develop in his stomach.

"Why? What's going on?" Tobey questioned fearfully as he looked back to Mr. Dudley. The teacher looked down at his student, whom he was just upset with less than a minute ago. My how much could change in just one minute. He collected the young boy's books off the desk.

"Come on Tobey, I'll explain once we get to the principal's office, alright?"

"No! I demand to know what's going on immediately," Tobey exclaimed, hating to be ignored or lead around under normal circumstances let alone an uncertain time as this.

"Tobey I'm not going to argue with you on this, now come with us or I'll have to tel- . . ." Mr. Dudley paused or, more accurately, sputtered to a stop. Before Tobey could even react to this, Mrs. Ripley stepped in where his teacher left off.

"What we're saying Tobey is that someone is waiting for you in the office and they need to speak with you right away, okay," she coaxed, waving for the boy to come out. Tobey was still miffed by the lack of information on his gym teacher's part, but trusted in his ability to discover what this was all about once he got to the office.

"Fine."

He started walking, taking no notice of the adults' troubled glances at one another. Mr. Dudley followed him out with his books and bag as Mrs. Ripley held the door open for them. She looked down at the boy as he passed; this was going to be tough. Just a few moments ago she had been in the middle of leading her Fair City Scouts troop when she herself was requested in the office. After being briefed on the situation, it was decided that she would help in making sure one of the school's more difficult students made it down to the principal's office without too much trouble. Now she was walking with said student to the office, hoping that they were handling this the best way possible.

"What's taking Mrs. Ripley so long? It's been almost thirty minutes," Scoops stated as he drummed on the bleachers he sat on with his fingers.

"Yeah, the meeting will be over soon and we didn't even get to the special events," Violet moped as she looked up at the boy.

"Guess Becky really didn't miss much this time."

"Yeah, she had to go right home, something about Bob needing an umbrella for the cinnamon shower next . . . week . . . or something" she trailed off as Scoops exchanged a quirked eyebrow.

"That Bob sure needs a lot of attention . . . Hey watch it!" he shouted as he was nearly run over by two other scouts playing tag to pass the time.

"Sorry!" they shouted running off.

"Maybe they needed her to do something important," Violet offered.

"Maybe we should go investigate," Scoops chirped his bored mood lifting at the thought. He was the number one reporter for the Daily Rag and could resist a chance to find a story. Plus he had watched a special report on investigative reporting and wanted to use the newly acquired skills.

"Investigate?"

"Yeah, you know. Go check it out, see what's happening, get the story . . ."

"Oh. But aren't we supposed to stay in the gym until the scout leader comes back?"

"Yeah, but the meetings almost over, you said it yourself."

"Well . . ."

"Besides, doesn't it say in the scout book that we should explore, learn and be helpful . . . Okay I know it's a stretch but exploring is like investigating, am I right?"

"Maybe, I guess."

"Okay, let's go!" Scoops jumped up and snuck over to the gymnasium doors, Violet following, albeit nervously. They made it out to the hallway, checking to see if anyone was around to spot them. Without incident, they traveled through the elementary school corridors until they reached the office entrance. The boy turned to his accomplice, whom looked back at him with confusion.

"Now what do we do?" she asked, rethinking her decision on following Scoops to begin with.

"Okay, first let's see if our subject is still here," he whispered as he peeked in through the side of the door's window. Violet did the same to see that Mrs. Ripley was nowhere to be seen. The both of them frowned as they drew their heads back to the safety of the wall. Scoops sighed in frustration, really hoping he could of gotten to the bottom of their scoot leaders holdup, but Violet let out a yelp of surprise before he could say anything.

"Someone's coming," she whispered harshly.

"Quick hide," the school reporter directed looking for a good place to do so.

"Where?"

"Over here. Come on." He grabbed Violet's arm and hastily lead her behind two potted plants next to the door. Luckily for them the school never really kept up with trimming back the two trees thus making it a perfect cover for two. They watched through the leaves as not only Mrs. Ripley walked up but Mr. Dudley and Tobey as well. They stayed silent until the trio made it through the office doors, only moving out once they were sure no one was coming back.

"Looks like Tobey's in trouble again," Violet assumed with a note of disappointment in her voice. She never understood why the boy was so deviant. She was always so pleasant with everyone and tried to help people out, but there was the rare occasion when her kindness would return to her unwanted and that was so with Tobey.

"Yeah. Wasn't he in detention today?"

"Uh huh, if only he wouldn't bring those robots to school, then maybe he would stay out of trouble."

"Well, there really isn't a story here then, troop meeting interrupted by giant robots . . . actually, that sounds pretty good. I wonder what he did that he had to have two teachers take him to the office?" Scoops questioned as he peered back in the door's window again.

"I don't think it's right for us to be spying like this Scoops, we should leave," Violet urged as she turned to head back to the gym.

"Wow the principal is there now too," the boy voiced with interest. Violet paused, curiosity grabbing hold of her for a moment, but she quickly shook it off. She already felt like she was breaking the rules by leaving the gym in the first place; now snooping around and Scoops trying to eavesdrop into other's business, she knew it was wrong.

"Well I'm going back and you should too Scoops. Scoops?" she inquired as the boy now had his ear pressed to the entrance, an unreadable expression on his face. With one last look she gave out a sigh of displeasure and started walking down the hallway; the boy not even noticing as he was too caught up in the muffled voices on the other side of the door. However, as she rounded the corner she heard shouting. She quickly doubled back to see what was happening. She poked her head around the bend just in time to see Scoops get smacked in the face by the office door. The person holding the door didn't even notice as they were in a complete rage.

"Tobey! Wait!" Mr. Dudley yelled from inside the office, but the ten year old didn't even look back as he took off running down the hall. Mrs. Ripley was the first to respond, rushing to the door and taking off after the distressed child. This was going terribly wrong. Mr. Dudley got to the door second, followed by the principal. They both noticed Scoops clutching his nose, sprawled on the ground. "Todd?!" Mr. Dudley exclaimed, shocked to see another one of his students there. Scoops looked up at the mention of his real name scared that he was now in a mess himself.

"What are you doing here young man?" the principal asked, leaving no room for nonsense. Todd guiltily lowered his head. This was not the story he had intended on finding out about and felt somewhat regretful that he had been so nosy in the first place. Curse that special on investigative reporting. Now he was burdened with information he felt terrible about and that he was in trouble for. "Well?"

"I was, I mean I am . . ." he removed his hand from his nose to reveal blood. "I'm bleeding," he stated matter of factually. Mr. Dudley bent down and helped Scoops up, directing the boy to go with the principal to the nurse's office. This was turning out to be a nightmare.

"No! No! No!" He heard Tobey yell from down the hall. Yes, definitely a nightmare. He ran down wanting to help with the ten year old only to find himself nearly colliding with yet another one of his students. Violet looked up at him with a stunned and apologetic glance.

"Violet, what are you doing out here?" the teacher exasperated as he put a hand to his forehead in frustration and shock. Then he noticed the Fair City Scouts uniform and realized why the students were there.

"I'm very sorry Mr. Dudley. I know we are suppose to wait in the gym, but it was taking so long for Mrs. Ripley to get back so we, well Scoops, I mean, Todd and I wanted to check and see what was going on, only I didn't really want to but I then when we got to the office I decided to come back to the gym but then I heard shouting . . ."

"Okay, okay Violet. It's alright . . ." he was interrupted by more yells from Tobey before continuing, "Why don't you head back to the gym that way while I go this way," he suggested, guiding her to go in the opposite direction of the distressed cries. Violet watched as her teacher took off around the corner without another word. She had seen Tobey when he stormed by with a look of terror on his face as far as she could tell, but now she could her him shrieking in what sounded like unbridled rage. She hesitantly started walking away, feeling confused and curious but to frightened by the situation to seek an answer now.

She reached the gymnasium to find the principal was there rounding up all the scouts and talking to them. Everyone looked over to her and she could feel a tinge of red on her cheeks. The older lady called her to have a seat with the other children before continuing where she had left off.

"The scout meeting is ending early today. I have already called your parents and they will be here shortly to take you home and . . . oh dear," she paused as she looked out of the large windows at the top of the gym. All the children did the same to see a large robot slide off the roof and stomp over to where the office was located. The principle reacted quickly by pressing the large robot panic button, something the school was always prepared for considering their city's unique villain population. "Come on students, follow me."

"Please Tobey, just put the remote down. Robots are not the answer, okay," Mrs. Ripley stated as calmly as she possibly could. The boy just glared.

"No, I'm leaving and there is nothing either of you can do about it," he declared, holding the remote up high. Mr. Dudley signaled for Mrs. Ripley to keep talking to him while he tried to move behind the boy genius. Unfortunately, Tobey was onto the plan and quickly turned so he could see both teachers. "I mean it!" He pressed the large red button and the school's roof began to peel back. The alarms went off. Both the educators gawked as a large metal hand swooped in through the gap made in the ceiling and allowed the boy to climb on board before retracting out, letting the roof fall back in place.

"Well, that could have gone better," Mr. Dudley said dryly as Mrs. Ripley gasped in concern.

The energy monster didn't understand why he couldn't eat 12 tons of electronics from the appliance bargain warehouse or why they were trying to stop him. What was wrong with having an after lunch, before dinner snack after all? Obviously the city took issue with it as people screamed in terror and law enforcement officers tried subduing the creature. Most efforts of the authorities were going in vain as the monster easily ignored them and went back to his all he could eat equipment buffet. However, his meal was interrupted by _**our pint sized hero of justice, Wordgirl!**_

Wordgirl flew in snatching away a refrigerator that was about to be consumed, causing the massive heap of energy to roar in anger. It stood up to give chase to the heroine and clawed at her furiously for the fridge back. Just as they were making it down to the end of the street, Wordgirl looked down to her simian sidekick below.

"Now Huggy!" she shouted as the monster took another swipe at her. She could feel the static shock raise the hairs on her head, but she dodged the blow before it could do any real damage. That's when Captain Huggyface quickly ran a copper wire from one end of the street to the other catching up the energy monster's feet. The electricity giant was quickly drawn into the wire and transferred to the 600 pound battery it was connected to. The monkey raised a fist in the air as a sign of victory just as the hero set down close by, putting the fridge beside her.

Nice work.

"Thanks," Wordgirl replied to the disembodied voice known to her as the narrator, "And good job Huggy, now all we have to do is get this guy back down to the station . . . Huggy?"

She glanced around looking for her sidekick to find that he was rummaging through the refrigerator she had just put down. She rolled her eyes as he pulled away from the ice box with a disappointed expression; no food.

"They were just for display, what did you expect?" she stated dryly. The monkey chirped in an apologetic fashion and the superhero sighed. She couldn't blame him for being hungry; they had spent the better part of the afternoon chasing the energy monster down. "When we get home you can make a snack okay." The monkey cheered in anticipation until the ground rumbled beneath them.

"What was that?" Wordgirl asked no one in particular.

_**I'll give you three guesses.**_ She rolled her eyes and instead tuned in to the thunderous noise with her super-hearing and immediately picked up the familiar sound of mechanical gears turning and metal joints bending. A robot and more specifically a giant robot.

"Tobey."

_**Right on the first try.**_

"Uh, I can't believe this. Two villains in one day."

Wordgirl quickly scooped Huggy up into her arms and took off in the direction of the commotion. Once she reached the scene, the superhero could make out two things, her assumption was correct and Tobey was fighting mad. She could tell because he wasn't doing his typical maniacal laughter followed by destroying something. He was just riding up on the shoulder of one of his robots with a furious expression on his face, marching through the city. It didn't even appear he noticed that his walk was causing a great disturbance amongst traffic and pedestrians. Wordgirl quickly swooped down and placed Huggy on a neighboring building, whispering for plan number 217 to be carried out. She then went to carry out her part of the plan and superhero duty.

"Stop right there, Tobey!" Wordgirl demanded as she hovered in the path of the lumbering machine, giving the ten and a ½ year old boy a solid glare. Without a word, not even a glance, Tobey ordered the robot to knock Wordgirl away with the back of its metallic hand. She quickly ducked out of the way of the blow which caused a typical annoyed expression on the boy genius face. However instead of going into a long, loud rant he simply kept his eyes dead forward and his robot marching in the same direction at a quicker pace. Wordgirl grumbled in frustration. Tobey could be such a pain.

"Tobey, I said stop," she commanded again swooping down and placing a hand to the robot's chest, halting its progress. She looked up and her eyes matched up with that of a furious McAllister.

"Why can't you just leave me alone!" he screamed, raising his remote to give another command to his automated escort. However, in his distraction, Tobey had failed to see Huggy sneak on to the antenna of his robot and slide down to where he was standing. In one quick motion the primate had snatched the remote from the angry boy and leaped into the waiting arms of the city's heroine. At first the two heroes thought Tobey was going to explode into a raging volcano or at least begin to seethe in a steam of anger but instead he covered his face with his hands and fell to his knees in complete silence. Wordgirl and Huggy looked at each other.

"Is this some kind of trick Tobey?" she asked sarcastically. This wouldn't be the first time a baddie did something unexpected and caught her off guard. But the 10 year old didn't move. He didn't want to move anymore. The pain he was experiencing was so intense it stole his ability to utter a sound; only silent agony rocked his body.

**I don' think it's a trick Wordgirl.**

The superhero gently floated down next to Tobey, still wary about the situation. Huggy, being more compassionate at this moment, jumped from her shoulder and slowly approached the boy with a look of concern. He reached out, patted Tobey on the back and broke the wall of silence. The ten year old began sobbing loudly, burying his head deeper into his arms as if trying to hide his grief from the heroine. Wordgirl looked to the narrator.

"What's going on?" she asked.

**It seems . . . (there was the unmistakable sound of pages flipping) . . . oh my. **

"What? What is it?" she asked again, this time a little more anxiously. There was silence on the narrator's part. He didn't know what to say, or more correctly, he didn't know how to say it. He whispered.

**It says here that Tobey's mother was in a car accident.**

"Oh no," Wordgirl said, bringing her hands to her mouth in astonishment. She looked down at the crying boy with a new understanding.

**He's trying to get to the hospital.**

"Tobey I'm . . . sorry, um here," she said reaching down to him with a hanky. The boy glanced over his arms at the superhero for a long, awkward moment. He didn't want to be seen like this, but he couldn't help it. He outstretched his hand without a word and she placed the napkin in his palm. He drew it down to his face quietly. The silence was so uncomfortable for her, that Wordgirl began to fidget with her cape. Her thoughts leaned towards her own mother and how devastated she would feel if she received news of her mom being in the hospital. Immediately her disposition towards the situation changed, her face growing determined.

Huggyface looked up to her and squeaked out a reply. She looked down to him.

"We're taking Tobey to the hospital right now Huggy," she said bending down so her sidekick could climb up on her back. The boy looked over at her in mild surprise, but remained speechless. Without any hesitation, the girl scooped Tobey up into her arms and took off in flight towards the city's medical center. On a normal day, the boy would have been enthralled by the treatment. A chance to be so close to Wordgirl was sometimes his only goal for most days, but today the thrill in his heart was weighed down by the chill in his soul. He didn't know what to expect once he reached the hospital. What if his mother was severely injured; what if she died? Fear, gripped him as the building came up over the horizon.

Wordgirl could feel the boy tense in her grasp and she happen a glance down at him. His head was forward, eyes fixed on the hospital, face pale. She didn't know what to say and that was strange. She was Wordgirl and she had nothing to say to this situation. Normally, she would comfort the person, but this was Tobey; usually a villain and an annoying one at that. But at this time it was a scared boy whose mother was in the hospital and she still didn't know what to say. Once they landed at the medical facility she placed Tobey down and watched as he looked back at her with puffy eyes before taking off for the front entrance. Huggy chirped and she nodded.

"I hope she is too Huggy; I hope she is too."

_But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6: 27-28_


End file.
